Energy

Energy conservation

For over a decade, we’ve set goals to conserve energy and reduce emissions. Since 2008, we’ve invested in more energy-efficient equipment and employed more eco-efficient manufacturing practices. That’s allowed us to reduce our energy consumption 27% on an intensity basis (per case of product sold) and 9% on an absolute basis between 2007 and 2018, representing a reduction of 72,000 megawatt-hours, over our last two goal periods.

With the launch of our IGNITE strategy, we’ve continued to report annual energy use and conduct third-party assurance, as disclosed on our ESG Data Hub. We’ll continue pursuing energy efficiency opportunities with the goal of achieving or exceeding our 2018 baseline levels. As proof of this commitment, our energy consumption decreased 6% between our 2018 baseline and 2022. Our plants were able to drive efficiencies and reduce energy consumption 9% per case of product sold between our 2018 baseline year and 2022.

North America renewable energy

We signed a 12-year, 70–megawatt virtual power purchase agreement with Enel Green Power North America in 2019 to purchase renewable energy beginning in 2021. Representing about half of Clorox’s 100% renewable electricity goal for operations in the U.S. and Canada, this agreement along with renewable energy credits, or RECs, purchased from the open market helped us achieve that goal by 2021, four years earlier than our original plan. 

A second VPPA, a 12-year, 47-megawatt agreement announced in 2022 for a new wind farm in Oklahoma with Enel North America’s renewable energy business line, Enel Green Power, began producing renewable energy for Clorox in January 2023. Each VPPA was expected to deliver about half of Clorox’s 100% renewable electricity goal for U.S. and Canadian operations annually, eliminating the need to purchase RECs from the open market. This new wind farm was also expected to create over 350 local jobs during its development. Longer term, we are committed to maintaining this goal through VPPAs and other market purchases of RECs as necessary. U.S. and Canada electricity consumption represented 85% of global electricity consumption and 53% of global energy consumption — including electricity and fuels — in calendar year 2022. 

Our VPPAs allow us to support the expansion of renewable energy infrastructure in the U.S. Additionally, we invested in renewable energy at two of our facilities. In fiscal year 2017, we installed solar panels at our Fairfield, California, plant and at our regional distribution center in Aberdeen, Maryland. Both solar panel arrays were built with a third-party provider as power purchase agreements, or PPAs. That means we didn’t spend company money to build these projects, and the facilities buy the power produced from the third party instead of from the utility. While both arrays generate renewable energy, we do not claim the use of renewable energy or include the clean energy attributes of the Aberdeen regional distribution center in the calculation of our GHG emissions because the third party retains the REC rights in the PPA. We also have not claimed renewable energy from our Fairfield facility as we are working to establish necessary procedures to support related claims.

International renewable energy

We also achieved a full year of renewable electricity at our Colombia plant and a partial year of renewable electricity at our Chile plant. We sourced the renewable electricity from international RECs through energy service providers in Colombia and Chile. These renewable energy sourcing efforts in our Latin American operations represented 8% of our electricity consumption outside of the U.S. and Canada in 2022.

Oakland Headquarters LEED Certification

In 2010, our corporate headquarters in Oakland, California, became one of only 38 buildings in the U.S. at that time to have achieved platinum-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – Existing Building certification (LEED-EB) — the highest environmental recognition an existing building can achieve. Built in 1976, this 24-floor building was one of the oldest buildings to achieve this environmental certification level. LEED-EB certification, administered by the U.S. Green Business Council, focuses on lowering the environmental footprint of an existing building’s operations and maintenance. Platinum certification is the highest of four certification levels offered by the LEED program.

To earn this certification, Clorox made dozens of building improvements, including:

• Replaced every plumbing fixture, toilet and urinal to reduce water consumption by over 40% (approximately 1.5 million gallons annually).
• Replaced more than 1,700 fixtures with more eco-efficient lighting.
• Made numerous efficiency improvements to the building’s heating, cooling and ventilation system — such as high-efficiency boilers and water heaters.
• Moved to nonpotable water for all irrigation.
• Implemented solid waste recycling and composting programs.

While we sold the Oakland building in 2013, we continued to lease office space there. Our 2010 LEED achievement distinguished Clorox as an environmental leader with a strong commitment to environmental stewardship.

Lighting Retrofits

In the early 2010s, we began to equip our manufacturing and distribution facilities with energy-efficient T5/T8 fluorescent lighting. In 2014, our engineering standards changed to specify LED lighting, which is more energy-efficient than fluorescent lighting, for all interior and exterior new construction and retrofits, and we consequently converted many of the initial T5/T8 upgrades to LED. Today, all Clorox sites globally have retrofitted their lighting to more energy efficient technologies.

Our facilities also completed energy assessments to further identify and reduce energy usage from their operating equipment and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, and implemented improved operating procedures.